1 Mother 2 Another

If you’re not au currant on our history with Elmo, read here and here.

If you are familiar with Maddie’s longstanding love affair with the Red Menace – I mean cute lil red guy – then you’re probably bracing yourselves for what comes next. Fear not – nothing new has been added to our Elmo-stuffed household.

But something I thought could be gotten rid of has been raised to level of favored toy.

Remember how I said that Maddie would have nothing to do with the hot new TMX Elmo? Apparently that’s not entirely true.

A couple nights ago I was alone in the family room, breaking down boxes from Christmas for recycling. When I got to the TMX Elmo box, I had the sound machine implanted in the packaging to deal with. For those of you not lucky enough to own a TMX Elmo, it comes in a “Top Secret” box with a flap that, when lifted, triggers a host of giggles from Elmo with the exclamation, “Elmo’s feeling ticklish in here!”

With grim joy, I began ripping into the box, determined to silence the machine and move forwards from the TMX debacle. I located the small box and happily relegated it to the trashcan.

A few minutes later Maddie and Daddy joined me in the family room. Scarcely had they sat down to play when – can’t you see this coming??? – our trashcan began talking.

Yes, from across the room we heard the garbage squeal, “Elmo’s feeling ticklish in here!”

Maddie’s ears perked up. “Elmo?” she said, searching out her friend. Again, the $#@# trash can spoke. Our girlie zeroed in on her friend’s voice like a hawk and began demanding we set her giggly friend free.

What could I do? I dragged out the little sound box and handed it to her.

But what is this? you could see Maddie think to herself. She quickly learned that she could press the button and hear an endless loop of Elmo’s declaration of imminent convulsions. Which she did. A lot.

Yes, the sound box is Maddie’s favorite part of the hard-to-get TMX Elmo.

Proving once again that you can buy a kid an extravagant present, and it’s the box she ends up playing with.